Inside the Star

Kelly didn't deserve firing

Don't bother looking for a smoking gun. There isn't one. Paul Kelly wasn't stealing from the union, nor was he spying on players' private emails or anything of that sort. He got fired, apparently, because he didn't do enough right.

Paul Kelly wasn't stealing from the union, nor was he spying on players' private emails or anything of that sort. You might hear the NHL Players Association trotting out some technical breach of his contract as a way to try and wiggle out of paying Kelly the $1.5 million (U.S.) guaranteed salary he's owed next year, but that will just be the usually mean-spirited nonsense you get in many a corporate squabble.

But Kelly, a decent, honest and well-intentioned man, did nothing wrong.

He got fired, apparently, because he didn't do enough right.

Or, more precisely, Kelly got fired because somebody convinced the 30-player executive committee that he hadn't done enough in less than two years on the job and therefore couldn't be trusted to lead the next collective bargaining battle.

Those who successfully plotted against him breached constitutional procedures, fudged internal reviews and used a variety of dirty tricks worthy of Watergate to finally triumph at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

What self-respecting organization fires a key executive at 3:30 in the morning?

If there's a single smart player on the executive committee, they've already figured out they've made an awful mistake by being convinced to axe a good man, thereby putting their futures in the hands of Machiavellian suits they wouldn't trust as teammates.

Maybe that's why more than 50 players spent yesterday lobbying Kelly's right-hand man, the widely respected Glenn Healy, to stay on after his colleague Pat Flatley quit in the wake of Kelly's ouster.

Healy's the lone progressive left. Otherwise, the hardline labour mentality that led the lemmings over the cliff in 2004-05 is now on the verge of taking over again. All you had to hear was an old union guy like Buzz Hargrove – supposedly the NHLPA's independent ombudsman, charged with bringing player complaints forward – detailing union business in various radio interviews yesterday to understand the old guard is back in charge again.

But it still comes down to the players. Those supposed to comprise the leadership of this union have botched the job of finding a leader over the past two years.

They hired a high-profile Boston-based lawyer who had never run a union, handed him a messy CBA that went sour with the recession and assigned him the job of running an organization filled mostly with players who don't care about union business.

Then, 20 months later, despite record union revenues, he's gone.

So all the money spent on the search committee that led the association to Kelly's doorstep, and the $3 million in salary he's already earned, and the money spent on having a review of the office that culminated in the decision to give him the boot, was all a complete waste. And more money will now be wasted on a new search.

If I'm a fourth-liner making the NHL minimum in Dallas or Nashville, maybe I might want to know why the union has wasted, conservatively, $5-6 million of player dues on this ridiculous escapade.

In less than 20 years, the union has gone from a one-man totalitarian organization to one in which there's almost too much democracy, or at least too many cooks.

Players like Robyn Regehr, Andrew Ference and Shawn Horcoff are now powerful forces, but the reality is none of the league's stars – Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Martin Brodeur – are significant figures in the union.

Meanwhile, from almost the day Kelly was hired the union’s chief counsel Ian Penny, its ombudsman - Eric Lindros and now Hargrove - and the NHLPA’s advisory board were lined up against him because, basically, he wasn’t enough like Bob Goodenow for their tastes.

Now the people who are still fighting the last lockout are poised to take charge of a union of hockey players who don’t want to be bothered with the details.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.